The Reason for Shawn's Headband
by MASHFAN
Summary: Inspired by the Oct. 19th RAW. Wonder what on earth possessed Shawn to wear that thing around his neck? The reason provides Hunter with plenty of new teasing material on his best friend...of course, Shawn doesn't find it so funny.


_A/N: Inspired by a conversation I had with my aunt when she saw Shawn wearing the headband around his neck. First thing she says: "What, is he trying to cover a hickey?" And am I the only one to notice that he seems to be trying to wear that headband everywhere BUT his head? lol._

_Disclaimer: I do not own anything connected to the WWE or any characters contained within this story._

"How many segments do we have tonight? I mean, besides the opening one?" Shawn asked as he sat on the bench and flipped through the pages of the run sheet for the show tonight. He and Hunter were in the small room they had claimed as DX's for the night. They had a couple more hours until the show started, and having already ran their idea of "attempting to talk in the Snoop Dog language" by Snoop Dog himself a few moments ago to make sure he was cool with it, they were going over the rest of the show.

"It's a pretty light show for us, actually." Hunter replied as he riffled through his duffel bag attempting to find his cameo DX hat he was planning on wearing that night. Having seen no point in waiting, both he and Shawn had changed into their DX clothes - sans the little things like wristbands and such - after arriving at the arena earlier. "I mean, besides the kinda long promo in seg one, we've really only got the confrontation with Jericho and the rest of the Smackdown team at the end. Beyond that, they only want a few shots of us watching the 5-on-5 match we're supposed to set up for Team Raw."

Shawn nodded in answer as he took his hair brush out of his own bag, pulling his hair back into a half pony tail before quickly brushing the rest of it back behind his ears in preparation of putting on his DX cowboy hat later. Hunter found and put on his hat and sat back on the bench. "During the first one you realize we'll have to put down all the members of Jericho's team, of course."

"But of course! I mean, come on, we're DX, what else would we do?" Shawn joked. He was currently occupied going through his many DX accessories and trying to decide which ones to wear that night.

As Hunter opened his mouth to reply he noticed for the first time, now that Shawn had pulled his hair back, that his friend had bruising on his neck. Hunter frowned and was about to ask what Shawn had done to himself when he looked a bit closer and his eyes widened in surprise.

Just as quickly, he had to bite his lip to keep from laughing. "Uh, Shawn? Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't teenagers usually the ones that have to worry about hickeys?"

Shawn looked up and blinked at him, thoroughly confused by the random statement. Hunter wasn't completely successful at keeping the chuckle out of his voice as he explained, "You got quite the love mark there, Shawny." Hunter tapped his own neck with two fingers to indicate the location of said mark. Shawn narrowed his eyes suspiciously at him. "Hey, I'm not kiddin' man. I'm serious, you have a hickey! Check in the mirror if you don't believe me!" Hunter pointed to the small square mirror hanging on the wall.

Shawn still looked dubious, but did as told. Hunter lost the battle with laughter completely as Shawn's mouth dropped open in shock once he stood in front of the mirror. "Oh my..." Shawn's hand automatically went up to rub the spot as if he could rub it away, staring at his reflection in disbelief. "I can't go out there with this!" Hunter's laughter continued to fill the room. "Hunter, this isn't funny!"

"Yes, it is! Very funny, actually." Hunter refuted, still chuckling as he continued sarcastically, "Come on, you mean you don't want to flaunt to the world that you and Becks made good use of your week off last week? Why ever not?"

Oh, if looks could kill...Hunter decided he'd be dead several times over from the death glare Shawn was now giving him in the mirror. "Because whether Rebecca and I did or not is nobody else's business!" Shawn snapped at his still-laughing friend, "And that includes you!" Hunter threw up his hands in surrender to show Shawn he was backing off, but Shawn had already gone back to fingering the mark and staring at it with distress. "Seriously, Hunt, what am I gonna do? I can't go on live national TV with a frickin' hickey!"

Hunter fought to push down his amusement as he tried to think of a solution to Shawn's predicament. None of their DX shirts were turtlenecks or anything, so they wouldn't cover it. "Ummmm...maybe the make-up people would be able to do something with it?"

Shawn's eyes lit up for a moment. "That's what I'll do!" Just as quickly, though, his face dimmed again. "But...you know how much we usually sweat out there. What if the sweat runs it off? Or my hair or something rubs it? Or somebody else rubs it off if we grapple?" Shawn, slightly panicked, considered his reflection in the mirror for a moment, before heading to the bench and proceeding to go through all the random DX clothing and accessories they had on hand, to see if there was anything helpful there.

Hunter just couldn't help himself. "Shawn, do you realize how stupid you look right now? A 44 year old man freaking out about hiding a hickey?" He snickered. "I'm NEVER letting you live this down."

"Shut it!" Shawn threw another glare his way before returning his attention back to all the DX gear in front of him (he had unceremoniously emptied Hunter's bag as well, looking for anything that might be of help). "Ah ha!" He triumphantly picked up the green DX headband and pulled it over his head and around his neck as he headed over to the mirror to see how it looked.

Hunter snorted. "You can't be serious."

Shawn shot him a puzzled looked in the mirror. "What?"

"That looks totally stupid. And could you be any more obvious? You NEVER wear anything around or over you neck like that except your cross necklace. At least half the fans, both here in the arena and watching on TV, will know immediately why you're wearing it."

Shawn looked exasperated. "You have any better bright ideas?"

"Yeah...avoid the situation in the future by reminding Rebecca that you have to go on live TV, so next time keep any marks somewhere not normally visible!"

Shawn huffed and rolled his eyes, sticking his tongue out childishly. But Hunter was pleased to note that his friend seemed to be finally loosening up about the situation.

Shawn studied his makeshift neck-cover. "I think it'll cover it even with moving my head and stuff..." He tilted his head in an attempt to test this.

"Oh, for the love of..."

Shawn ignored Hunter's muttering. "I wonder if I should do both make-up and the band around it, just to be sure." His forehead crinkled in thought.

"You can't be serious." Hunter sighed. "Look, Shawn, while it looks completely idiotic, the DX head band around your neck covers it fine, alright? You don't need the make-up. Not like you're going to be wrestling in a match tonight."

"Fine, I'll just stick with this." He sounded rather dejected.

Hunter grinned. "Oh, come on, Shawn. You're telling me you don't see the humor in this? YOU, of all people, show up to a show with a hickey, and you don't see how that's funny?"

Shawn rolled his eyes at his friend again, but nevertheless had to suppress a smile. "Okay, okay, so it is a little funny." He admitted. He moved once more in front of the mirror and took off the headband to survey the mark on his neck one more time, finally giving in and chuckling as he traced it with his index finger. "I can't believe Rebecca actually left that obvious a mark." An amused smile finally won out on Shawn's face. "She's going to crack up when I tell her."

Hunter smirked. "Maybe she did it on purpose. You know, show all those fangirls once and for all that HBK is taken. Stop them from making those 'HBK I wanna have your baby' signs."

Shawn laughed. "Right. A hickey would do that SO much better than when I kissed her on live PPV last year, or the storylines with Jericho and JBL during the same time frame."

Any reply Hunter may have made was cut short by a short knock on the frame of the open doorway. "Hey, guys." As John Cena stepped into the room, Shawn hastily yanked the head band back over his neck. "Listen, I was just wondering if you wanted to do our normal post show thing with crowd tonight after we go off the air."

Hunter was trying valiantly not to laugh at his best friend's attempt to look casual as he turned from the mirror and cleared his throat. "Yeah, sure. Crowds always eat it up."

"Cool." Cena turned to go, but stopped as he was about to leave the room. "Uh, Shawn? I'm sorry but I have to ask...you're not going out there with that thing around your neck, are you? Because no offense, man, but it looks ridiculous." Hunter lost it and doubled over with laughter while Shawn simply hung his head in defeat.

Completely confused as to what he'd said to cause such reactions, Cena ventured hesitantly, "Do I want to know what's so funny?"

Shawn crossed his arms defensively. "No." He answered moodily, having a cross between a pout and a glare directed towards Hunter for his continuing laughter. He was dangerously close to sulking.

"Oh, come off it it Shawn!" Hunter's face was still filled with mirth as he got himself under control. "Lighten up! Just before Cena walked in, even you were admitting it was funny!"

"Okay, definitely missing something here." Cena was still lost.

"Don't worry about it." Hunter assured the still-clueless champ. "Shawny here's just trying to hide a hickey is all."

"Hunter!" Shawn immediately protested.

"What? So you have a hickey from your wife. A little embarrassing for TV, maybe, but not exactly something to be ashamed of!"

He was wacked hard upside the head with Shawn's mostly-empty duffle bag. "Ouch!"

"I told you it was nobody else's business!" Shawn hissed, glaring at his best friend for his betrayal. "I don't go around spreading YOUR secrets!"

Hunter looked slightly sheepish.

Cena, meanwhile, snorted. "Seriously? You have a hickey?"

Shawn temporarily shifted his glare to Cena before bringing it stonily back to Hunter.

Hunter sighed as he saw Shawn was actually pissed. "Cena, don't say anything to anyone, alright? Otherwise Shawn'll kick my ass even more then he's already planning to."

"Oh, you can count on that." the biting tone of Shawn's voice made Hunter wince as his friend stalked by him to start stuffing his things that had been scattered during his earlier search back into his bag. Ok, so telling literally the first person he saw something that he knew his best friend wanted to keep private, particularly knowing just how private Shawn liked to keep his personal life in general, wasn't Hunter's shining moment. He reached out a hand to grab Shawn's wrist and stop his movements.

"Look, Shawn, you're right. I shouldn't have said anything. I'm sorry."

Shawn met his gaze. "It's alright." he relented. "I'm not quite sure why I'm so uptight about it anyway, to be honest."

"So we're good?"

"Yeah, we're good. Don't worry about it." Then he glanced at Cena. "Though I would appreciate it if you kept it to yourself, John."

"I wasn't planning on telling anyone anyway." Cena assured him. "No worries." Then he grinned. "Although to repeat what I said earlier...Seriously? You have a hickey? And you're going to wear that thing around your neck out there?"

"Oh for...yes, i have a hickey!" He pulled down the material around his neck enough to show the mark. "Happy now? And yes, I'm going to wear this out there!"

Hunter at least had the brains to suppress his laughter this time. Cena merely shook his head while continuing to grin. "Shawn, Shawn, Shawn, where did we go wrong with you?"

Before Shawn could reply, there was another knock on the door frame of the room. "Hunter?" it was Stephanie, who was finished with a meeting she had been attending and was looking for her husband. She smiled at the other two in the room. "Hi, John. Hey, Shawn." Then she frowned. "Why are you wearing that around your neck?"

Shawn threw his arms up in exasperated defeat. "You've gotta be kidding me!" He stomped out the door. "I can't win!"

Stephanie blinked, then turned to Hunter questioningly. Hunter just shook his head with an amused smile. "I'll explain later, but you don't want to know, Steph. Trust me."


End file.
